Feast of Our Lady of Lourdes Novena begins tomorrow

The novena for the Feast of Our Lady of Lourdes starts tomorrow, February 2, which will open with a recitation of the Holy Rosary and will be followed shortly by a Eucharistic celebration at 6 p.m.

Former Cebu first district representative and University of the Visayas executive vice president Jose "Dodong" Gullas said yesterday that the celebration will be highlighted by the reenactment of the "Descent of the Blessed Virgin" from her shrine at the Basilica del Santo Niño before her feast day on February 11. The procession will be on February 10.

Healing Mass will be at 5:30 p.m. which will be officiated by Monsignor Fred Kriekenbeek with Fathers Andrew Batayola and Nick Echevarria as co-celebrants.

The Descent would be a reenactment of the appearance and the going down of the virgin mother to 14-year-old Bernadette Soubiroux, this according to Gullas.

"Ang Pagkanaug sa Birhen is the only one celebrated in the entire country and it has to be witnessed by the devotees of Mama Mary," Gullas, a Catholic devotee, said.

A pontifical Mass will be celebrated by Cebu Archbishop Ricardo Cardinal Vidal on February 11 at 4:30 p.m.

In line with the occasion, 45 indigent unwed couples will gather for the "Kasalan sa Lourdes" on February 3 to welcome the sacrament of matrimony.

Apart from the reenactment of her descent from heaven to appear before the young Bernadette, Gullas said the taking of the image of the Our Lady of Lourdes down from her shrine symbolizes humility.

Gullas narrated that his grandfather Don Juan Rivera and grandmother Andrea, who donated the icon to the church, were the ones who conceptualized the practice on October 1935. It then became a yearly ritual of the Cofradia de la Virgen de Lourdes which was organized also at the Basilica at that time.

Some of the Augustinian priests then were initially against the taking down of the icon of Our Lady of Lourdes from the shrine for fear that it might fall from the hands of devotees.

But Rivera assured the Augustinian priests that the ceremony will be handled with utmost care.

Later, his mother Josefina "Inday Pining" Gullas continued the practice until she passed away in 1984. When Inday Pining died, Dodong Gullas was then granted the honor to continue the tradition along with his elder brother, incumbent first district Rep. Eduardo Gullas and sister, Gliceria "Inday Sering" Gullas-Lucero.

The Feast of Our Lady of Lourdes was started on February 11, 1858 in Lourdes, France when she appeared for the first time to Bernadette Soubiroux. The Lady asked for a chapel to be built at the site of her apparition while revealing herself to the young girl that she is "the Immaculate Conception."

The Lady of Lourdes, or the Blessed Virgin Mary, appeared to St. Bernadette 18 times, the last time of which was on July 16, 1858.

Her Feast became a part of the Church Liturgy after Pope Leo XIII declared a special office and a Mass in commemoration of the apparition.

In 1907, Pope Pius X extended the observance of this Feast to the entire Catholic Church, which observed it every February 11. - Garry B. Lao and Jasmin R. Uy